Oöphoi

Oöphoi is the pseudonym of Gianluigi Gasparetti.
Born in Rome, Italy, March 26, 1958. He started his own music experiments in 1995, with a basic instrumentation, trying to explore the shores of deep space-ambient music.
His first album "Three Lights at the End of the World", composed in 1995, has been released in 1996.
In 2002 he has founded the experimental ambient group Nebula, along with Klaus Wiese, Mauro Malgrande, Lorenzo Pierobon and Tau Ceti. He has released 20+ Cds for many international labels (Hic Sunt Leones, Amplexus, Hypnos, Nextera, Prikosnovenie, Electroshock Records, Skean Dhu, Stella Maris, Aplaus, Mystery Sea, Glacial Movements), and now he runs his own label Umbra, devoted to the music of new Italian ambient artists.

Artist: Alio Die + Oophoi
P: 2019
LTD 200This first volume of a trilogy of 'lost and found' tracks contain a unique collaboration piece recorded in the 90' with Oophoi, a track with Xabec, Martina Galvagni, and Maninkari a persian duo from Paris. Deep and essential vibes combine Alio Die’s sound with some of the more interesting collaboration moments ever, over the years.

The second volume will be out in december with the new album by Aglaia “Astrolabio"

Artist: Aqua Dorsa P: 2009LTD 750
Aquadorsa is a new musical Italian ambient project formed by Enrico Coniglio and Oophoi.Their first work “Cloudlands” is a perfect mix of glithc,classical and orchestral glacial ambient soundscape.Enrico Coniglio is a guitar player and composer and his research has increasingly focused on the relationship between 'music' and 'landscape ', in an attempt to represent the contemporary crisis of the territory, the loss of nature and identity of places, and the unknown on the evolution of post-urban and post-industrial territory. He has collaborated with various artists, including: Nicola Alesini, Joachim Roedelius and Elisa Marzorati.Gianluigi Gasparetti better know as Oophoi started his own music experiments in 1995, trying to explore the shores of deep space-ambient. His live album "The spirals of time", released in 1997 by Amplexus, has been voted as one of the best ambient albums of all times.Oophoi uses traditional instruments as synths and sampling machines and his music is recorded using analog-only devices in The Kiva.

Artist: Aqua DorsaP: 2013The duo Aqua Dorsa, perhaps better known under their respective names, Gianluigi Gasparetti and Enrico Coniglio, here present a very solemn yet foreboding album with dark undertones. Gigi originally composed the source material which was then expanded upon by Enrico. We've done some final editing to the material during the summer and fall of 2013. The November Earth also features a short story written by Gigi in 2012, called Sogno di Luce.

Artist: Klaus Wiese & Oöphoi
P: 1999
LTD 500In Celtic mythology Wouivre is the Divine Spirit: like a snake crawling along the ground, the Wouivre runs deep beneath the earth, bringing Life and Fertility. There are places where this hidden and sacred Stream reaches the surface, creating a link between Sky and Earth: on such a place the Templar Knights built the Cathedral of Chartres.Musical concept, recordings and mixing in the Kiva, Due Acque, August 1999. Limited edition of 500 copies. CD comes inside a gatefold cardboard sleeve.

Artist: NebulaeP: 2003 / 2011For longer time in the pipeline, but in March of 2011 dreams of all drone fans came true. This old ambient classic from 2003 (limited CDr release by Stella Maris) is now available thanks to Hypnos as pressed CD in nicely looking digipak. Nebulæ (previously known as Nebula) can be easily described as another ambient supergroup, featuring two drone kings, Oophoi and Mathias Grassow, as well as legendray Klaus Wiese, who unfortunately passed away in January of 2009. Tau Ceti (synths), Lorenzo Pierobon (harmonic chants), Geert Verbeke (himalayan bowls), Luna (vocals) and Mauro Malgrande (shakuhachi) complete the list of gifted musicians on this album. "The Path Of White Clouds" begins with mysteriously hypnotic resonant drones on "The Quest". Deeper, more massive inner journey continues on "Ascension", this time remarkably enriched by expressive harmonic chants, an ecstatic journey that overlaps into the next grandiose composition, "Devotion", on which except Klaus Wiese and Mauro Malgrande all above mentioned appear. Beautifully immense and ethereal, and possibly the most mysterious piece on album, among others featuring also gloomy male and female voices and chants, definitely another highlight!!! Drifting on "The Living Mandala" is slowly evolving into more active level, ocassionally spiced by bells and also by hardly recognized processed shakuhachi. The next composition, "Enlightenment", is based around Mauro Malgrande's shakuhachi and synth washes by Klaus Wiese and Oophoi, peppered by some noises, deep, calm and meditative. Closing ghostly title opus, "The Path Of White Clouds", showcases masterful appearance of Klaus Wiese's zither, Mauro Malgrande's chants and Oophoi's electronics. Absolutely gorgeous and meditative journey from this strong line-up of highly acclaimed and talented artists. And kudos to Hypnos for reissuing this masterpiece, a must have for all die-hard aficionados of deep mysterious drones.

Artist: Oöphoi & FaryusP: 2007LTD 500This project is a deep meditation about forgotten civilizations and mystery of endless life. This music is created for deep listening. At first sight this music is static. If you will listen to it in a superficial way, you don't get all the hidden sounds and textures, but if you go into a serious deep listening you'll discover that it is not static at all this is powerful mood music. This music full of pictures, moods and thoughts, voices of forgotten civilizations..
The concept of this album like meditation to ancient archeological artefact. You see a stone - it statics. But after you start to see the richest history of this object, images, emotions, events opens.. The Stone - a statics, a history - dynamics.
Photos of Sumerians artifacts were used in design of this release. Sumerians civilization was the earliest extant civilization. Their culture existed 5000-8000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Nowadays, archeologists find remarkable artifacts and stone tablets with ancient writings and pictures of gods and a mysterious planet left by Sumerians. Sumerians called their gods "Anunnaki" which meant "those who came from heaven downwards the Earth". They believed that "Anunnaki" came from the mysterious planet which resides within our Solar system. They called this planet "Nibiru".

Artist: Oöphoi & NetherworldP: 2006/ 2007"Arpe di Sabbia" (Harps of Sand) is a double live album recorded in Archiaro, a remote location immersed in the woods of southern Italy, and it features exclusive music composed for this special event.
The two discs contain more than 130 minutes of slowly-changing textures and abyssal drones that try to describe the hidden voices of Nature: the endless movements of the ocean waves, the rustle of the crescent moon, the sunset's undercurrents, the life of nocturnal animals, the silent flow of the stars.Written and performed by Oophoi: synths, dulcimer, samples, percussions. Special guest on "La Memoria Liquida, le Maree Minerali": Netherworld on synth, percussions, voice.

Artist: Oöphoi + Paul VnukP: 2006This recording works in roughly the same "slow drone" territory explored by Vnuk and Oophoi on their solo Hypnos releases, Silence Speaks in Shadows and Athlit, respectively. At the same time, it has a different sonic character, at times slow and dark and smooth, but at other moments bright and modern and metallic. Distance to Zero could fairly be described as some of the most daring and experimental work by either artist... a true surprise to these ears when the demo arrived here at Hypnos HQ. It definitely has an "edge" to it, though it's still definitely easy and smooth listening. I have no doubt this will be a much-loved and much-discussed Hypnos release, and a significant milestone in the discography of both Vnuk and Oophoi.
Vnuk's Silence Speaks in Shadows and Oophoi's Athlit are two of the best-loved releases on Hypnos, and now these two great artists have combined their creative and sound-sculpting powers for a new work!

Artist: Oöphoi + Paul VnukP: 2011
LTD 1000Paul Vnuk reveals: "For me the story of Dreamfields starts before our [Gigi’s & my] first collaboration Distance to Zero. Back in 2005 I sent Gigi a CD of loops improvised in my studio on a Lexicon Jamman and a Boomerang looping pedal. Part of those even included my then 8-year-old son reading improvised poetry. These loops were meant to get the ball rolling on our collaboration, but rather than using these loops at the time, Gigi instead sent me back a set of all new tracks that were inspired by my loops. I then added my parts and that became our 1st album. Then in 2009, unknown to me he went back to those original loops and blended them into his alchemic audio processes and created a whole new musical work. I then spent parts of 2010 and 2011 overdubbing further additions, crafting a final mix and a master. Dreamfields is a deep collaboration made up of many layers. I see it as a great sonic painting that contains a nice balance of our individual voices as well as some new sonic landscapes that neither of us expected and I am very proud of the result!“

Artist: Oöphoi & Tau CetiP: 2004 / 2012Part one of the re-mastered reissue of Oophoi and Tau Ceti's classic double album from 2004. Oophoi : synths, electronics, loops, bells, vocoder, percussions, shells.Tau Ceti : synths.For more than twelve years, Gianluigi Gasparetti’s Deep Listenings has served as a kind of sonic requiem for Gasparetti’s own music as the mysterious Oöphoi—in his words, "the sound reproducing the breath which generated life at the beginning of the Creation"- Klaus Wiese, and other Italian sound artists.
Oöphoi’s collaborations with Enrico Cosimi, in particular, the mysterious synth master known as Tau Ceti, have provided some particularly engrossing listening experiences in recent years.
Both the deeply cosmic leanings of Celestial Geometries and last year’s more organically harmonic Subterranea, were among my favorite works to utterly zone out to.
This year they return with the equally enjoyable and heavily zone out inducing Archaic Oceans: A double-cd that opens with the massive 39 minute and 46 second mesmeric symphony, "Atlantis Rising". Right off the bat, I hear a fascinating progression in sound from their previous two releases—that is to say, we get both the overwhelming and sometimes disorienting deep space aesthetics of Celestial Geometries at the same time that one feels closer to earthbound nature as in the subtly accented organics of Subterranea.
Ultimately, Archaic Oceans is a frigid, arctic tidal wave however, a tidal wave that washes over the listener in stop-frame as if we are experiencing the loss of gravity in each gush of water spilling from the tsunami—a world of wide open oceanic drones.
Like its predecessors, all of the tracks have that Oöphoi & Tau Ceti trademark "objects appear closer than they seem" build up. These tracks sound purposeful. At the same time, each extended piece opens up and vibrates into often cold, wind swept droning gusts; breezes that swirl and whoosh with particles of organic timbres.
Another metaphor also comes to mind while listening to Archaic Oceans. These sounds are like the soundtrack to a kaleidoscope—as if each shifting lens of refracted color has its own sound identifier (if you close your eyes while listening, you can even feel the sensation of constantly shifting bursts of light on the back of your eyelids).
As always, these craftsmen demonstrate a very refined approach to recording; the use of volume and subtle mixing of tracks really helps the minute details to linger in the ears. It also sounds as though Oöphoi & Tau Ceti have made very effective use of noise reduction techniques. This works quite magnificently on disk two's opener "Meru". Here, there is a wonderful exchange of fading in wobbly and hollow blips and blurps, as if the stereo field has been lopped off exposing a layer of raw pulsing sonic nerve endings. Or, to use an alternate metaphor, I also feel strangely submerged beneath the sea, as if a storm is afoot or the tides have inexplicably changed.
As a soundtrack to the timelessness of the sea—the never ending music of water and wind, Archaic Oceans captures this ancient wonder of nature in both its sounds and icy textures. Very enjoyable stuff, indeed.

Artist: Oöphoi & Tau CetiP: 2004 / 2012Part two of the re-mastered reissue of Oophoi and Tau Ceti's classic double album from 2004. Oophoi : synths, electronics, loops, bells, vocoder, percussions, shells.Tau Ceti : synths.For more than twelve years, Gianluigi Gasparetti’s Deep Listenings has served as a kind of sonic requiem for Gasparetti’s own music as the mysterious Oöphoi—in his words, "the sound reproducing the breath which generated life at the beginning of the Creation"- Klaus Wiese, and other Italian sound artists.
Oöphoi’s collaborations with Enrico Cosimi, in particular, the mysterious synth master known as Tau Ceti, have provided some particularly engrossing listening experiences in recent years.
Both the deeply cosmic leanings of Celestial Geometries and last year’s more organically harmonic Subterranea, were among my favorite works to utterly zone out to.
This year they return with the equally enjoyable and heavily zone out inducing Archaic Oceans: A double-cd that opens with the massive 39 minute and 46 second mesmeric symphony, "Atlantis Rising". Right off the bat, I hear a fascinating progression in sound from their previous two releases—that is to say, we get both the overwhelming and sometimes disorienting deep space aesthetics of Celestial Geometries at the same time that one feels closer to earthbound nature as in the subtly accented organics of Subterranea.
Ultimately, Archaic Oceans is a frigid, arctic tidal wave however, a tidal wave that washes over the listener in stop-frame as if we are experiencing the loss of gravity in each gush of water spilling from the tsunami—a world of wide open oceanic drones.
Like its predecessors, all of the tracks have that Oöphoi & Tau Ceti trademark "objects appear closer than they seem" build up. These tracks sound purposeful. At the same time, each extended piece opens up and vibrates into often cold, wind swept droning gusts; breezes that swirl and whoosh with particles of organic timbres.
Another metaphor also comes to mind while listening to Archaic Oceans. These sounds are like the soundtrack to a kaleidoscope—as if each shifting lens of refracted color has its own sound identifier (if you close your eyes while listening, you can even feel the sensation of constantly shifting bursts of light on the back of your eyelids).
As always, these craftsmen demonstrate a very refined approach to recording; the use of volume and subtle mixing of tracks really helps the minute details to linger in the ears. It also sounds as though Oöphoi & Tau Ceti have made very effective use of noise reduction techniques. This works quite magnificently on disk two's opener "Meru". Here, there is a wonderful exchange of fading in wobbly and hollow blips and blurps, as if the stereo field has been lopped off exposing a layer of raw pulsing sonic nerve endings. Or, to use an alternate metaphor, I also feel strangely submerged beneath the sea, as if a storm is afoot or the tides have inexplicably changed.
As a soundtrack to the timelessness of the sea—the never ending music of water and wind, Archaic Oceans captures this ancient wonder of nature in both its sounds and icy textures. Very enjoyable stuff, indeed.

Artist: Oöphoi & Tau CetiP: 2001 / 2012Part one of the re-mastered reissue of Oophoi and Tau Ceti's classic double album from 2001 / 2006. An enigmatic and deep work of slow dynamics, ceremonial intensity and methodical pacing. Synth pads grow, thicken and gentley shift, a creature calls from the distance through a mist of reverb and echo, harmonics alternately become dense then fall away to a shiny smooth ribbon of sound......

Artist: Oöphoi & Tau CetiP: 2001 / 2012Part two of the re-mastered reissue of Oophoi and Tau Ceti's classic double album from 2001 / 2006. An enigmatic and deep work of slow dynamics, ceremonial intensity and methodical pacing. Synth pads grow, thicken and gentley shift, a creature calls from the distance through a mist of reverb and echo, harmonics alternately become dense then fall away to a shiny smooth ribbon of sound......

Artist: Oöphoi & Tau CetiP: 2015Re- mastered tracks from Oophoi's former PENUMBRA label, for the first time on CD."An' Warth" is taken from Le Torri Del Silenzio (Penumbra 010, 2005).
"Baath Nag" is taken from Le Torri Del Silenzio (Penumbra 010, 2005).
"Borealis" is taken from Borealis (Penumbra 028, 2006).
"Lifting The Veil" is taken from Lifting The Veil (Penumbra 016, 2005).

Artist: Oöphoi & Tau CetiP: 2003Vast sonic explorations with synths, flutes, stones and shells, ranging from
subtle and mysterious atmospheres to highly dynamic passages, describe this out of reach underworld.
The last part of the long suite "The chamber of eternity" features the unique sound of the tibetan singing bowls of Klaus Wiese. Composed, performed and recorded by Oöphoi & Tau Ceti in the Kiva, spring 2002.

Artist: OöphoiP: 2006 / 2012Re-mastered reissue of Oophoi's classic album from 2006, build on two lengthy suites: Liquos and Aquos.
An amazing biological soundscape that seems to bubble and percolate with a flow like life itself. A very rich and detailed recording.

Artist: Oöphoi P: 2008LTD 750"When I've been asked to describe the Ice Age with an uninterrupted drone, I knew I wanted to avoid the cliches of the genre: dark rumblings, massive low frequencies, cold atmospheres. I had to describe with sounds the white landscape, the blinding light reflected by the frozen oceans, the abyssal silence.I have imagined myself in flight over this Sleeping Earth, a solitary winged-being surrounded by winds, air, water and ice. This led me to compose an airy drone with minimal variations and delicate tones, an hommage to a pure, incontaminated and remote land."

Artist: OöphoiP: 2002Even if "Bardo" was released long time ago, back in 2002 on Russian Electroshock Records, with this review I would like to pay a little tribute to sole protagonist of Oöphoi, Gianluigi "Gigi" Gasparetti, who has recently passed away after a long fight with illness at the age of 55 years. I consider "Bardo" as one of the most treasured and influential works of this Italian drone shaman. Yes, undoubtedly "Bardo" is absolutely fascinating sonic voyage beyond the gates, accomplishing the state of sheer contemplation and transcendence. Based on Bardo, which means in Tibetan Buddhism a state between death and rebirth, the intermediate state. There are six states of Bardo, the album focuses on four of them. The journey unfolds with "Samten Bardo - Contemplation" (Bardo of Meditation), which dives deeply into mammoth sonic cave, where monstrous drone tsunami is occasionally reinforced by various primordial reverberations, ominous voices and tremulous hums. An ultimate sonic therapy!!! And appropriate exercise for your speakers too... Drone meditations have never sounded more grandiose and immersing, this is a track for your Throne of Drones!!! Flatlined drones invade "Chikai Bardo - Dissolution" (Bardo of the Course of Death), but soon they are united with eerie, hallucinogenic voices and assorted industrialized dissonances (some of them evoking screeching sounds of the passing train). Stunningly weird, but intense and stimulating deep trance-ambient solitudes. Ear- and mind-bending too... This deeply meditative drone odyssey overlaps also to the next composition, "Chonyi Bardo - A Path Of The Lights" (Bardo of the After-death). Intriguing mystery soon reveals, when exotic embellishments and sparse gongs and bells join this long-form piece, clocking to 29 minutes. After about 8 minutes Tibetan Buddhist Monks begin chanting their prayers along with ear-tickling percussions here and there and shift this composition into absolutely essential and magnificent high-altitude plateau. Slowly droning and gradually expanding into gracefully spectacular pilgrimage site. Yes, this is a truly unforgettable aural adventure that everyone must experience to reach this spiritual oasis!!! This is for me, along with David Parsons' "Mani", a true Sagarmāthā among the Tibetan Buddhism-infused ambient contemplations!!! "Sipai Bardo - Crossing The Bridge Of Existence The Eternal Cycle" (Bardo of the Rebirth within Samsara) blossoms with low rumbling drone expansions, ghostly voices and diverse noisier disruptions, and smoothly cascades and culminates through immense, mysteriously permeated terrains, before reaching powerfully intense pinnacle, a grand finale I must say!!! "Bardo" is one of the many milestones in Oöphoi's amazing discography!!! But the words are pouring very hard and I am not ashamed of tears in my eyes as the Lord of unfathomable drones now continues his journey beyond the gates of this world with kindred spirits such as Klaus and Kristian. Grazie Gigi, grazie grande Oöphoi, you will never be forgotten!!!